Light Industry Archives | Page 3 of 4 | Applebox Belles: The Women of Lake Country’s Packinghouses

Square dancing party near the Woodsdale packinghouse, 1950s

The packinghouses fostered this camaraderie by holding dances each harvest season for the workers and their families, and in later years, dinners.

The first bulk bin in the Okanagan, 1957

Gordon Shaw, Manager of the Vernon Fruit Union’s Winfield packinghouse developed a new method of handling apples and with a crew of men, built the first five hundred […]

The packinghouse crew of the Vernon Fruit Union, Oyama, 1920s

The Vernon Fruit Union operated a packinghouse in Oyama from 1913 to 1974.

Vernon Fruit Union, Oyama, 1940

At the packinghouse fruit was sized and graded and apples considered not suitable for market due to bruises, blemishes, or poor colour were culled. In the early years, […]

Vernon Fruit Union, Oyama, 1914

The Vernon Fruit Union packing crew and their families, 1914. Back Row: Winnie Brown, Mrs. Curfoot, Charlie Phillips, Alec Philips, Sam Tyndall Front Row: Floyd Whipple, Ted Fudge […]

Vernon Fruit Union packinghouse, Oyama, 1940s

The sorting line at the Vernon Fruit Union packinghouse, Oyama, 1940s.

Bernice Gunn, 2007

Bernice Gunn demonstrates apple packing.

Packinghouse crew at Okanagan Centre, October, 1928

Left to right: Unknown, Malcolm Douglas, unknown, unknown, Ivy Fallow, J. W. Cole, Charlie Draper, unknown, Cliff Fallow, Alice Crowder, Sadie Rutt, Mrs. Rutt

Winoka Cooperative Exchange staff, 1946

Winoka Cooperative Exchange staff, Okanagan Centre, October 10th, 1946. Ann Cook, Curly McDonald, Edie Gibbons, Helen Lidstone, Mrs. French, Joyce Buckley, Bryan Cooney, Minnie Dehnke, Norm Simpson, Hiroshi […]

Bernice Gunn, 1956

Bernice Gunn packed at the Winoka Cooperative Exchange packinghouse in Okanagan Centre for thirty five years until its closure in 1974. Bernice mentored many of the younger belles, […]

Apple boxes

The size of the standard apple box was 10 x 11 x 20 inches, inside measurement. When fully packed it contained 40 pounds of apples for a total […]

Vernon Fruit Union packinghouse, Oyama, 1931

The first attempt to unionize packinghouse workers took place in the 1930s but was unsuccessful due to the surplus of available workers.